Earth map with ice caps melted

Ziggurat said:


Water only expands on cooling below about 4 deg. C (a little above the freezing point). Above that it's got a positive coefficient of thermal expansion, meaning that water above 4 deg. C will expand when heated, not when cooled.
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So you're saying that H20 at -1C takes up less space than 17C?

If not, then my point is valid.... ice takes up more space than water. So if ice (in water) melts into water, the level stays very close to the same.

Where the global water levels would rise would be from land locked ice.
 
DangerousBeliefs said:


So you're saying that H20 at -1C takes up less space than 17C?

If not, then my point is valid.... ice takes up more space than water. So if ice (in water) melts into water, the level stays very close to the same.

Where the global water levels would rise would be from land locked ice.
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Thermal expantion will mainkl ocur in the tropis where the ice is not an ishue. Assuming we ignore the tempretue change in the sournding water when the ice ments (because that makes the moddle easier) the effect of sea ice melting on global sea levels will be precicly 0.
 
geni said:

As to the water vaper it should be rembered that water vaper is a greenhouse gas so more water vaper in the atmosphere would probably not be good news.
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It might not be good news, but it has to come from somewhere. I'm guessing the oceans. I wonder how much of the Earth's water would be in the form of vapor if the average planetary temperature was over, say, 90 degrees F.
 
Yeah, or those of us who are male, take a leak outside in really cold weather, you will see how "things" contract when cold..


Seriously though: The average temperature of Earth needs only to rise a few degrees for al lthe ice to melt, so temperature expansion won't make that much difference.

Ice floating on water displaces exactly its own weight (like anything else that floats), so melting that will not change water leve. Ice on land is another matter. The exact effect of melting all ice cannot be said for certain. First of all, we do not know the exact amount of ice in antarktis, secondly, since some areas WILL be flooded, the surface area of the seas will be larger, thus counteracting the rise. ... But we will be needing the real-estate freed from the ice :rolleyes:

Hans
 
Regarding the removal of Antarctic and Greenland icecaps, these areas would experience a certain ammount of uplift due to the removal of the overburden generated by the ice caps. Just like what happens when someone raises from a cushion. Now, if it would be enough to locally counter the effect of the raising sealevel, it s another issue.
 
A lot. Scandinavia has been rising at rougly 10 cm/10years since the end of the last ice age, for example.
This geological phenomenon is know as isostasy can make continents go up or down hundreds of meters (disclaimer no it has nothing to do with Atlantis). The astenosphere is composed by dense and semi-molten or molten rock. When you remove weight from the litosphere (less dense material that can be envisaged as "floating" over the denser rocks, includes continental crust), astenospheric material flows laterally to compensate.
Check
http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/isostasy1/

this will give you more detailed data.
 
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